


Everythin's Changed

by masterroadtripper



Series: Life At Lightning Flats [2]
Category: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Engagement, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26656627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterroadtripper/pseuds/masterroadtripper
Summary: Fifty years after Ennis moved up to Lightning Flats with Jack and the Twist Ranch is finally flourishing.  Its making money, they have ranch hands to help out and Jack and Ennis are happy.  When Jack goes into town, he sees something on the TV that will change their lives forever, yet again.[Set October 2014]
Relationships: Ennis Del Mar/Jack Twist
Series: Life At Lightning Flats [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939537
Comments: 3
Kudos: 126





	Everythin's Changed

**October 2014**

Jack rolled over in the old bed that he and Ennis had been sharing for almost fifty years and stretched his arms over his head. There were days like today when he’d wake up and feel every single fall he’d taken during his rodeo days. Every single bone and joint that ever got twisted the wrong way, every single muscle that pulled just a little too hard. As Jack cracked his eyes open, he reached out to the night table on his side of the bed to paw for the two little pills and glass of water he’d put there last night before bed. Taking them into the palm of his hand and tilting them back into his mouth, Jack swallowed them down and rested back on his pillow.

“Mornin’ luv,” he heard Ennis’s sleep and cigarette roughed voice say from beside him.

“Mornin’ Ennis,” Jack said, rolling his neck around and feeling a couple of the joints cracking and popping.

“Feelin’ okay?” Ennis asked, pushing himself to sitting and pulling his knees closer to his body. Jack wished he could do that. Now, he had to wait for his painkillers to kick in before he’d even consider moving.

Closing his eyes to answer Ennis, Jack said, “Will be soon.”

Since when did he get so old? Jack missed the days of ranching cattle. Being out there on the land, riding his horse, the dogs running ahead towards the cows, his stetson planted firmly on his head, doing something useful with his life. Now, the Twist Ranch had younger guys that did that work for them. All their ranch hands.

“Tha’ closest thing ta’ raisin’ kids we’s ever gonna get,” Ennis always said. Jack couldn’t help but agree. They were like his family. All the boys that moved on and had kids, they’d bring them back to the Ranch. Like their grandkids. It was the best thing they had. The best thing they were ever going to have.

Jack considered themselves lucky. When Ennis first moved in, almost exactly fifty years ago now, back in 1964 after John Twist passed, Jack was always worried that the story Ennis would tell would come true. That someone down in Lightning Flats would get an idea about the two of them ranched up together. That they’d both end up dead, just like the two guys Ennis knew as a kid.

But here they were, in 2014. A new century. Still alive, with the Twist Ranch finally bringing in more money than it ever had since Jack was a kid. Maybe they did do something right. The town didn’t ask questions and their farmhands didn’t care. It amazed Jack everytime that their boys were so understanding and accepting of everything. How so much had changed in fifty years. How much had changed within the last decade even.

“Damn Jack,” Ennis said, turning to face Jack and leaning over to kiss him. Lips rough from the elements, chapped with a faint hint of smoke from the cigarette he burnt through on the front porch last night.

“Damn what,” Jack asked when Ennis sat back.

“Youse gonna go talk ta’ Dr. Stone ‘bout gettin’ somethin’ ta’ help with youse sleepin’?” Ennis said.

“Soon,” Jack assured Ennis as he felt the tension finally leaving his muscles as the painkillers started working, “was thinkin’ a’ goin’ into town today. Bring Rhys with me ta’ settle the summer fees at McAsey’s.”

“Wha’s tha’ gotta do with phonin’ Dr. Stone?” Ennis muttered, rolling out of bed and standing by the window, grabbing his jeans off the chair and starting to change. Looking over at Ennis, Jack smiled to himself.

He’d found himself the prettiest, most handsome and beautiful gent on their side of the Rockies. There was no doubt in his mind, not even once, that bringing Ennis here was the right decision. Building their life together on the ranch.

While Ennis had a couple of months of his seventieth year on his earth under his belt and Jack still had a couple of months to go before he caught up, he still believed Ennis was as beautiful as the day he’d first seen him, sitting on the steps of Aguirre’s office. Now, watching Ennis button up his green and blue plaid and tuck it into his jeans, Jack just wanted to pull him back down onto their bed and not leave for the rest of the day.

“It aint’ got nothin’ ta do with Dr. Stone,” Jack said as he finally started moving to start the day, “Jus’ wanted ta’ tell you tha’...I aint phonin’ him today ‘cause I got things ta’ do.”

“Fine, I’ll phone ‘im,” Ennis said, stuffing his socked feet into the boots that he’d traded out his cowboy boots for a couple of decades back. “Aint hurt my feet so much,” Ennis had explained at the time.

“Okay,” Jack said, watching Ennis’s shapely backside with interest as he opened their bedroom door and walked out into the hallway of the house Jack had been called home since the day he was born.

“Still the prettiest damn thing Cowboy,” Jack muttered as he pulled himself out of bed.

“Aint’ bad yourself Rodeo,” Ennis said, his lips pulled tight into his trademark smirk as he disappeared into the hall.

Once Jack heard his footsteps pass the creaky bottom stair, he started to get to work dressing, choosing his own worn-in jeans and red button-up, stuffing his feet into boots and following Ennis to the kitchen.

There was a thermos of coffee sitting at his spot at the table already as Jack approached Ennis. Wrapping his arms around his partner’s waist, Jack planted a kiss behind his ear, right where grey-blond hair met skin.

“Thanks darlin',” Jack said, “I’m gonna go see if Rhys is up.”

“Take my truck,” Ennis muttered from where he was stirring oatmeal in the bowl he’d pulled from the microwave.

“M’kay,” Jack replied, pressing one more kiss to Ennis’s hair before pulling away, grabbing his thermos, and heading out the front door towards the new truck Ennis had bought.

Jack didn’t like Ennis’s truck. He thought it was an eyesore, but, at the same time, he did see the benefits of having the truck, living this far out into the country on bumpy gravel roads that the county refused to fix. But still, he took Ennis’s keys off the hook and turned the engine over, the mechanics catching on the first try. Unlike what his own two-tone truck sitting in the yard would have done. He did have to admit, it wasn’t horrible to have a working vehicle for once.

Pulling out of the yard and down the gravel path, Jack saw the lodging house come into sight around the trees. Almost all the lights were on, Jack noticed with a smile. All their boys, getting ready for their tasks that Ennis was no doubt going to hand out within the hour.

Opening the door to the lodging house, Jack smiled as he watched the chaos of the kitchen that he just walked into. A handful sitting at one of the tables with bowls of cereal in front of them, a couple of others washing their dishes in the sink already and all the remaining either back at the bunks or in line for the washroom.

“Morning Jack,” one of the older boys - Dmitri - said from his place at the table, a dribble of milk falling down his chin.

Jack tipped his hat in greeting at the boys that waved before asking, “Rhys ‘round yet?”

“Yes sir,” a small timid voice at his right said. Rhys Thursten from Saskatchewan, Canada. Looking at the boy, brown hair cropped close to his head, taller than both himself and Ennis but all of one hundred fifty pounds soaking wet, Jack smiled.

“Ready ta’ go?” Jack asked, looping his fingers into his belt and letting his arms rest against the weight.

“We’re going somewhere?” Rhys asked.

“Town,” Jack said, “you ready or not?”

“Yes sir, I’m ready,” Rhys said, stumbling over his words but pulling himself together with a small, lopsided smile on the end.

Letting their most recent hire follow him out to his - or Ennis’s - truck, Jack opened the door and watched as the tall, lanky boy just stood there like he had no idea what to do. Sure Jack knew he’d grown up on a farm, but in terms of doing anything without instruction, Rhys wouldn’t. Anxiety was what Ennis said it was. Severe, crippling anxiety. Where Ennis had learned that, Jack wasn’t entirely sure. Maybe it was off the internet that he’d learned how to use on his phone. Jack didn’t know and didn’t care. He didn’t care much for his phone, but put it in his pocket every morning, just for Ennis’s sake.

“Well c’mon,” Jack said, pushing the door to the truck open from the inside and watched as Rhys tugged his red Case hat from where he’d placed it on his head and climbed inside the truck.

Bumping down the gravel road towards the tiny town of Lightning Flats, Jack turned briefly to Rhys and asked, “likin’ it out here so far? Probably little different than home.”

“It's good, yeah,” Rhys said, tucking his hat between his legs, which were shaking considerably, like a rodeo bull in its pen, just begging to be released.

“Colder in Canada probably,” Jack asked, trying to remember how he would make conversation with Ennis, way back in the good old days. Asking him questions, trying to get answers that were better than just grunts.

“Yeah. Colder at home,” Rhys agreed.

Jack barely managed to keep the conversation going, the rest of their drive into town, but as they pulled into the lot of McAsey’s Supplies, he was sure glad to see the storefront come into view.

Climbing out of the truck and locking the doors, Jack raised his arms above his head, feeling the delicious crack of his shoulders and shoulder blades. Looking around at the leaves blowing across the recently paved street his eye caught on the post office. Jack thought he should pop in and see if Maybelle was around. Say hello to one of his oldest friends.

But what he saw beside the office made him want to do a double-take. From the flagpole, where the Wyoming flag usually flew, was a different flag. One that Jack never once thought he’d see, flying on the main street of a small town in backwater Wyoming.

A rainbow flag.

A gay pride flag.

“What in…,” Jack muttered before turning on his heel and marching into McAsey’s, ignoring grabbing a cart, basket or saying hi to the small child who was waving at him.

Walking straight up to the counter where he knew Sarah was going to be standing, he called, “Sarah!”

“Jack Twist,” Sarah said, slowly rounding the corner, her grey hair partially flopping out of its bun and into her eyes as she made her way towards him and Rhys, the young farmhand following faithfully behind him.

“Sarah, wha's goin’ on?” Jack asked, his voice down into a hiss as he whispered, mindful of who else was in the store, careful as always.

“Didn’t you hear?” Sarah asked.

“Hear what Sarah, we ain’t gots no TV out at the Ranch,” Jack whispered, remembering back to the day that the Twin Towers fell. How Tom and Ennis had gone into town that morning for groceries. Came back looking all scared and telling them to get in the trucks. They’d gone into town, all of them, and watched those images on the TVs at McAsey’s for hours.

“Gay Marriage. It got legalized here,” Sarah said, her excitement mounting as her frail fingers gripped his arms and pulled him closer, “I know you don’t want to talk about it Jack Twist, I know that you’re good at keeping secrets. But you and Ennis? You ever realize this could be a reality? You ever think that?”

“No,” Jack said, a feeling mounting in his chest that he could name. He didn’t know what it was. He couldn’t describe it in a million years, no matter how hard he tried. It was like the first time he and Ennis made love in their tent. The real first time. Gentle, loving, caring, and conjuring up feelings he would never be able to put a name to.

“I…,” Jack stuttered, finding himself out of words for the first time in years, “I need a paper.”

“Of course,” Sarah said, “take one and go home to Ennis.”

“Ennis?” Jack shouted, crashing into their house, newspaper in one hand, the small box he kept in the glove box of his old truck in the other. When he got no reply, he cursed briefly to himself before pulling out his phone - the one he hated so much - and dialed the only number he ever saved into it.

Ennis picked up on the second ring, his rough grunt letting Jack know he was listening.

“Where are ya Ennis?” Jack asked into the screen.

“Out on tha’ south range,” he replied, “Why? Somethin’ wrong?”

“Aint nothin’ wrong,” Jack said, “But I got somethin’ I really need ya’ ta’ see.”

“Meet ya’ at the house?” Ennis asked.

“I’ll be there,” Jack confirmed, ending the call after a few tries, the screen and his fingertips not cooperating, as per usual.

Making himself a cup of coffee before bringing it to sit at the kitchen table, Jack tried to leaf through the paper Sarah had given him, smiling to himself. He and Ennis were never as subtle as they may have liked to have though, Jack realized. And yet, even though all the other articles in the paper seemed interesting, he kept getting drawn back to the headline on the front, overlaying another rainbow flag.

 _WE WON_ , the headline read, followed by, _homosexual marriage now legally recognized in the state of Wyoming_.

Then, he heard the crackling rhythm of truck tires on gravel, followed by the slam of the door and the creek of the screen opening.

“Jack?” Ennis’s voice called into the house.

“In tha’ kitchen,” he replied, folding the newspaper properly and handing it over to Ennis once he got close enough.

“Wha’s wrong,” Ennis said, taking the paper from Jack’s hands. Looking down, Jack watched as recognition graced his features, tears leaping to the corners of his eyes.

“Ennis,” Jack started, the word rolling off his tongue like a well-practiced church prayer. One that he’d had ready for years, just in case they ever got the chance to...well...be standing here today, the paper in front of them, proving that someone, somewhere had finally realized that they were just as in love as any other two people.

“Yes Jack,” Ennis whispered, but Jack kept going.

“Fifty-one years ago, I got tha’ chance ta’ meet youse up on Brokeback. A random freak chance we’s were up there together at all. They’s say findin’ love is like findin’ ya’ other half. I found you, Cowboy. Are ya’ ready ta’ make it official?”

“Jack, I swear,” Ennis muttered, the tears that had collected in the corners of his eyes now racing down his cheeks. Jack was fairly certain that he wasn’t much better off.

“Ennis Edward Del Mar, will you marry me?” Jack asked, slowly, carefully going down onto one knee and pulling the ring box out of his pocket.

Holding it out to Ennis as he’d always dreamed of doing. Looking up into those chocolate brown eyes as they sparkled in the light.

“Of course Jack,” Ennis said, helping him to his feet, “Not a doubt in my mind.”


End file.
